Collective Gallery – The Golden Record: Sounds of Earth
22 - 28 Cockburn Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1NY. 0131 220 1260The Golden Record: Sounds of Earth
The Golden Record is a phonograph record included in the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977. It contains sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth, compiled by Dr Carl Sagan for NASA. It is intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form, or humans of the far future that may find it. The Voyager spacecraft will take about 40,000 years to come near another star, ‘near’ meaning in this case within around 1.7 light years’ distance; hence, if other beings do not come to meet the spacecraft, it will take at least that long for the Golden Record to be found.
Celebrating the full diversity of the Edinburgh Festival, the Collective Gallery has invited visual artists, comedians, theatre practitioners and musicians to make content for a contemporary version of the Golden Record as the basis for a largescale gallery exhibition and offsite programme of performance events at the Fringe.
For the gallery exhibition 116 artists have each created a work in response to a title assigned from Carl Sagan’s original list of images. Subjects range from scientific formulae, diagrams of human anatomy and anthropological photographs from around the world of transport systems, geographical phenomena, architecture, sport and different races, with titles ranging from the baldly descriptive DNA Structure and Diagram of Conception to the distinctly peculiar House Interior with Artist and Fire, Forest Scene with Mushrooms and Old Man with Beard and Glasses. In addition, to replace spoken greetings from Earthlings in 55 languages on the original, comedians and theatre practitioners present 35 minute films describing an aspect of life on Earth for the benefit of intelligent extraterrestrials who may intercept the Record, with essentials such as Being Welsh, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, Bingo and Sainsbury’s being covered in depth.
A documentary outlining the History of Interplanetary Communication by project curator Mel Brimfield and writer Sally O’Reilly is also being screened.
1 Aug - 13 Sept
Aug: Tues - Sun 11am - 6pm
Sept: Tues - Sat 12 noon - 5pm
Admission Free
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